The Magdalena lagoon at Boca de la Soledad was flooded by a high tide this morning with the National Geographic Sea Bird gently rocking on it. Very early, guests, local pangueros, and staff boarded the expedition landing craft (ELC) to conduct the last whale watching rounds of the trip. Just in front of Boca de la Soledad we encountered several cow-calf pairs, some of which were friendly. They approached our boats and commenced intense interactions with us the humans, and a particular mother and calf rubbed their bodies against every ELC. This experience kept on unexpectedly at a high level because the calf was extremely playful and let us touch his skin, tongue, and baleen for long periods of time (maybe there were minutes, but for all us seemed eternities of joy!). Many times this calf exposed the large head out of the water, allowing us to even examine the barnacles and whale “lice” attached to the soft, cushioned skin. So close, so clear, so direct, so good, and so exciting! An unforgettable experience that maybe changed our lives and ways of conceiving nature without noticing it! The morning went like this — plus other sights of more cows and calves breeching or spy-hoping!
As the morning progressed we finished our time at Boca de la Soledad and the National Geographic Sea Bird transited southbound to get to our afternoon destination: the wonderful place known as Sand Dollar Beach, regarded as the most beautiful beach of North America. In the way down to that location, on the beautiful, narrow Hull Canal, dozens of dolphins, frigatebirds, cormorants, Western and California gulls, willets, ibises, great blue herons, brant geese, redhead ducks, and more species of sea and shorebirds crossed paths with our ship. Patches of short mangroves were also seen from the bow, forming intricate little channels or “esteros” at the expense of the sandy coastline. The whole scene was a vast expanse of sand, ocean, mangrove forests, and blue sky. In the midafternoon, the anchor was dropped and guests and naturalists again reached Magdalena Island for the last outing of our voyage. The parties walked over the magnificent dunes and looked at the carpets of pioneer plants in green and red colors. More creatures showed up, and an orange sunset was the last goodbye as we left the wonderful sandy island.
